Advisory board

Lucy Wedderburn is a Professor in Paediatric Rheumatology at UCL (Institute of Child Health) and a Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). She trained in Immunology and Rheumatology at Cambridge and London before spending time in research at the University of Stanford, USA. She then returned to University College London (UCL) and GOSH on a Wellcome Trust Fellowship, where she has been for more than 10 years.

Professor Wedderburn’s research is focussed on understanding the pathology of childhood rheumatic conditions, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JDM). She has a regular clinic at GOSH where she sees children with arthritis and a range of other rheumatology conditions, as well as running a research team that investigates the functional mechanisms of these diseases. She is the Chief Investigator of a large cohort study in JDM that includes centres from across the UK and is now the Director of the newly established Arthritis Research UK Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology at UCL, UCL Hospitals and GOSH.

Dr. Chiara Bacchelli is a Senior Lecturer in Personalised Medicine and Genetics at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. In 2010, she helped launch the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre funded initiative GOSgene, a research group with the aim of facilitating rapid gene identification of uncharacterised rare genetic diseases. Her two main research areas of interest are rare diseases research and developing strategies for delivering stratified and precision medicine.

Her work and interest in genetics began during her PhD working on rare congenital disorders with Professor Peter Scambler. She then worked with Professors Bobby Gaspar and Adrian Thrasher in the Molecular Immunology Unit on the genetic characterisation of primary immunodeficiencies. After a period at the Institute of Cancer Research working in the Section of Cancer Genetics lead by Professor Nazneen Rahman, she returned to UCL to facilitate the formation of GOSgene.

During the course of her career, Chiara has acquired a vast repertoire of molecular genetic techniques with focus on disease gene identification through linkage analysis, homozygosity mapping and next generation sequencing. Her current work in GOSgene focuses on the use of exome and whole genome sequencing approaches coupled with advanced data analysis to deliver diagnostic tools for rare diseases. These tools are implemented for gene identification in affected individuals to help improve diagnostic testing, genetic counselling, family planning options, prenatal service development and personalised healthcare.

Emily is the Training Facilitator for Translational Research and the EUREKA Institute across the three UCL NIHR Biomedical Research Centres, UCLH, GOSH and Moorfields eye hospital. In this role, she supports Apollo London as well as organising a variety of translational research educational events across UCL.

Emily’s background is in health and exercise science research and has worked as a clinical respiratory physiologist. Having experience in a range of research environments, both conducting and supporting researchers in NZ, Canada and the UK, Emily has seen the importance of successful translational research and is passionate about bringing education to support researchers across their own journeys.